Step Inside the Real-Life Lumon Industries: The Eerie Headquarters of Severance

Bell Works, the real-life setting for Lumon Industries in Severance, has become a tourist destination. Initially known as Bell Labs, it was once a cutting-edge research facility for AT&T, where groundbreaking discoveries in telecommunications were made. Designed by architect Eero Saarinen in 1958, the building featured a mirrored glass exterior and floating walkways, aiming to foster creativity. However, the space’s windowless offices and catwalks made it feel cold and impersonal.

After AT&T’s breakup, Bell Labs faced demolition, but it was preserved and repurposed into Bell Works, a mixed-use facility with shops, offices, and a food court. Fans of Severance now visit the building to experience its eerie, corporate atmosphere. The location’s stark design mirrors the show’s themes of dual identities and hidden inner darkness.

Step Inside the Real-Life Lumon Industries: The Eerie Headquarters of Severance

Bell Works, the real-world setting for Lumon Industries in Apple TV+’s Severance, has quickly become a popular tourist spot due to its striking and unusual architecture. The building, originally known as Bell Labs, has a fascinating history that predates its role in the dystopian series. Cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagné stumbled upon Bell Labs while searching for abandoned malls online and found eerie photos of the mid-century office complex with its vacant, vast interiors. The building’s distinctive features, such as its wraparound walkways, triangular skylights, sunken lobby, and large built-in planters, gave it a cold and corporate atmosphere, perfect for the Severance aesthetic.

Upon discovering its location in Holmdel, New Jersey, Gagné, along with director Ben Stiller, visited the site in 2019. Despite renovations, they were captivated by the building’s still-imposing and impersonal character, making it the ideal choice for Severance. The series portrays employees who undergo a procedure that divides their work and personal lives, and the building’s stark, futuristic design mirrored the show’s themes of separation and isolation.

The History of Bell Labs

Before it became associated with Severance, Bell Labs was a pioneering force in telecommunications. As the research arm of AT&T, it employed thousands of scientists and engineers responsible for groundbreaking innovations, including microwave technology, touch-tone dialing, cellphones, and fiber-optic communication. The Holmdel location also played a significant role in supporting the scientific discovery of the Big Bang theory, earning a Nobel Prize in 1978.

In 1958, AT&T sought to expand Bell Labs’ capabilities and hired renowned architect Eero Saarinen to design a modern, expansive research facility. Saarinen’s design for the six-story, two-million-square-foot building featured a mirrored glass exterior—an architectural first. While Saarinen intended the layout to encourage collaboration through open spaces and floating walkways, the reality of the windowless offices and enclosed walkways gave the building a fortress-like quality, which many found stifling.

Bell Works Today

After AT&T’s breakup in 1982, Bell Labs began to decline, and by 2006, the Holmdel building was at risk of demolition. However, an international outcry, particularly from the scientific community, helped save the building from destruction. In 2013, a developer purchased and renovated the space, transforming it into Bell Works—a mixed-use complex that houses offices, retail shops, a food court, and a library. Today, the once-corporate labyrinth is now a lively community space where remote workers, families, and visitors can gather.

Fans of Severance often visit Bell Works to experience its striking architecture firsthand. The production team even enhances the setting’s winter-like atmosphere by trucking in ice and artificial snow for filming. Gagné sees the building’s mirrored glass facade as symbolic of the show’s deeper themes—characters who appear polished on the outside but harbor much darker realities within. What was once a beacon of technological advancement has now become a cultural landmark, embodying the existential themes of corporate life explored in Severance.